Storytime

Katie really loves reading, especially since she can read more and more difficult books on her own now. Maggie likes to page through on her own or have Daddy read to her (he does better voices). Here is a shot of Katie reading to Becky.

Lately our days have been filled with jumping (on the trampoline), playing trains, and watching Becky grow and learn new wonderful things. She loves to hold onto my fingers and stand until her little legs get tired and shaky...such big smiles! Maggie started her library time this week and likes it though is still a little shy about participating.

A Very Vera Crayon Roll Up TUTORIAL

There are a ton of crayon roll up tutorials out there, I even have an awesome one by skip to my lou on the sidebar, but I had a tweak in mind for a while and just went with it. I have been on a crafty streak lately (almost finished with Becky's baptism dress!!! I'll share soon!) and Katie asked me to help her design and make a purse. Oh boy. We'll see how that goes, but we have lots of drawings and last night we sketched out some pattern pieces. I guess I'll make a practice one with scrap fabric before we cut into her special fabric she picked out.

Anyway, I was saying that it isn't an original idea to have a crayon roll up by any means before I went on my tangent. This is designed to be quick and easy because it is using prequilted fabric (the name came from the fabric that reminds me of Vera Bradley purses) but you can find this fabric at JoAnn's and snag it fairly cheap with a coupon. You can use your stash fabric to make a quilt sandwich and practice free motion quilting, using the practice piece as a base for the project.

Materials:
one 14" x 9" piece of quilted fabric
two 14" x 5" piece of coordinating fabric
two 16" lengths of coordinating ribbon
1 package of binding or about 2 yards of binding to sew on
matching thread

1. Cut out your fabric

2. Iron the two pieces of coordinating fabric in half lengthwise

3. Mark sewing lines on the coordinating fabric starting 1/2" in from the side and at every inch mark. For example, 1/2", 1-1/2", 2-1/2"...etc).

4. Line up the fabric to be the crayon pockets so that the folded edge is toward the middle of the larger fabric and the open side is along the edge.

5. Sew starting with a backstitch down each line. Trim all threads.

6. Attach ribbon to the inside edge. Take care that it is 1/4 of the way up from the bottom (or down from the top) so that when it is folded in half and rolled the ribbon will hold it closed.

7. Attach your binding around the edge of your project. There is a great tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman found HERE.

8. Add crayons for portable fun! As you can see Maggie wouldn't let go of it for the picture. = )

Personal Use Only. If you would like to make these for charity or profit, please contact me first. Feel free to share this link, but link to this page, don't copy this tutorial to your own site. Thanks!

A girl and her Giraffes

Becky loves giraffes.

John teases me that at some point I 'decided' that she would love giraffes. Maggie loves monkeys, so we had to pick another animal and giraffes are so darn cute!

By the way, she REALLY DOES love giraffes. Maggie got her this squeaky giraffe that she loves to coo at and she was playing with her giraffe zoobie yesterday a lot.

And while I'm at it, I want to point out the BEAUTIFUL blanket that my friend Liz knitted for Becky that she is laying on in these pictures. She is so amazingly talented.

Crafting with Katie

To: Maggie
I made a hat for me. I made a hat for you.
Your a princess! I'm a princess!
From Katie!

Christmas Recap

We started our Christmas with letting the girls each open a gift the night before after we got back from Katie singing with the cherub choir. The next day we woke up and opened presents at our place before traveling to Great-Grandma and Grandpa's to see the Ritchey family, then back to Mom's place to spend time with Mom, Doug and Brittany. Poor Maggie was pretty sick so we ended up cutting our Greensburg trip short to go back to the begin our weekly trip to the doctor with Maggie's double ear infection. We have a picture of the girls at Josie's, but we realized we took very few pictures with all the juggling of Becky and Maggie's needs. Katie is so grown up now...I can't believe that next year she moves up to the next choir and Maggie will be in cherub choir singing on Christmas Eve! We had lots of fun, enjoying family and when the girls did something cute I noticed that we would often comment how much my Dad or John's Mom would have loved to see it.

Becky at 3 months

December 28, 2010

Becky turned 3 months old and got to have fun in the jumperoo!

Gift Costume

What Mom doesn't decided at 6:30 the night before school that she will go ahead and make her daughter a costume because it will make her soooooo happy? If you didn't guess, at that time I took the three girls to Joann's to get some felt with a coupon (of course!) to make this handy gift costume for about $1.50.

I probably still have the measurements and probably could write up a tutorial, but is it worth it? I mean, seriously, how many people would want to be a big felt present?

Katie did. And she loved it and totally made it worth it that I started the project at midnight, working on it for about 2 hours when it was that wonderful time that all were asleep in the house. It is always worth it when you see their eyes light up when they realize you made something Just. For. Her.

Late November/Early December recap

With some computer issues (yes with the new computer...ugh!) we were a little behind on sharing some pictures that were going on. Maggie's latest time consumer is playing with the dollhouse/calico critter houses. We even need to do a hand check to make sure the pieces stay with the houses and don't end up at church or the grocery store with us, tightly held in her fist.

Katie and Maggie enjoyed chocolate advent calendars from Uncle Doug and Brittany (Maggie's pleading eyes for more than one piece of chocolate each night...) and the wall calendar is from my Mom and Dad last year. This year the girls had to take turns, but they were pretty good about it.

Of course Maggie with the dancing Hallmark snowman and penguin...we have several movies with this too but at the moment I'll spare you. = )

The three cute girls on the quilt blanket and 2 pictures from when Becky turned 2 months old on November 28th.

If you are thinking of buying stock this year, go with....

...any sort of children's medicine....tylenol, motrin, mucinex....

I'm thinking it isn't great that when I took Becky to the doctor today, the nurse asked me what girl was sick this week. Yep...we even got the same exam room as we had last week. If we keep it up, maybe they will give us a drawer to keep extra diapers and wipes in.

Maggie started us off with this a day or two before Christmas and continued through until Tuesday when we took her to the doctor for a double ear infection. Katie started to pick it up and was a miserable mess for a few days, but at least she was on vacation so she didn't have to miss school. John and I then got it, and now sweet little Becky is bringing up the sick train.

All I can say is, that goodness for insurance, though those copays add up.

And to top it off, our computer needed a little hard drive surgery that John was able to do in the triage area. Now that the computer is as good as new, I need to add some fun pictures and movies to share.

On that note, Becky decided that her nap is over. = )